


Awkward Conversations

by TellMeNoAgain



Series: So Much Trouble [15]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Multi, Poly Bliss, Polyamory Negotiations, Power Imbalance, Spiked Cocoa, Starker D/s
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:33:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21929038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TellMeNoAgain/pseuds/TellMeNoAgain
Summary: Everyone wants to know, if Peter and Tony are a thing, and Pepper and Tony are a thing, what does that make Pepper and Peter?Time for an awkward conversation to come to the rescue again!~~~Pepper gathers the photos of the flowers and tosses everything but the one he selected. As she straightens she says, “Wait, what are you doing here, isn’t it lab-time?”“They’re fighting about the Loki weapon again and I just… I just needed a break,” sighs Peter, running his fingers through his hair.She smirks at him and says, “Well, thank you.  You’ve been deputized, you’re my honorary maid of honor.”“Is that what I am?” he asks, and he doesn’t mean for it to come out so plaintive and uncertain.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker/Tony Stark
Series: So Much Trouble [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1562707
Comments: 28
Kudos: 119





	Awkward Conversations

**Author's Note:**

> BETA READ!! Y'all can thank the fabulous jf4m, any remaining mistakes are all my stubborn fault.
> 
> NOT ENDGAME COMPLIANT. (Let's be real here, this AU is barely MCU compliant.)
> 
> For prudes, these are fictional characters and I've double checked, no one actually has a skeevy real-life relationship as a result of this series, so, like, relax. No one is going to get hurt. They're not real.

Mr. Stark and Dr. Banner are arguing about the application of the Mjolnir-eating nanobots to the Loki-Weasel and Peter cannot sit through Round 13 of this argument without his ears bleeding, he really can’t. Loki-Weasel is the worst superweapon name ever, and every time he hears it, he thinks of MJ’s derisive snort and winces. He can’t do another two-hour stint in the lab with them randomly throwing it around. He packs up his station and slides out of the lab knowing they’re so deep in the science they won’t notice for hours.

He’s not really sure what to do with himself, though. Natasha is at Clint’s for the week, and Steve is visiting Bucky. So he wanders up into the Avengers Wing, and then into the Stark Hallway. The door to the Stark Suite is open just a crack, and Ms. Potts calls out, “Tony? Peter?”

Peter calls back, “Me, just me!’

“Oh, come in here, then,” she says. When he gets to the suite, he can see that she’s surrounded by photos of flowers and she’s tapping her lower lip with a stylus. “These all look the same,” she tells him. “I can’t think anymore today.”

“What are they for?” asks Peter, coming closer. They do all look similar. Like, eerily similar.

“Last round of bouquets, I’ve got it narrowed down to these eight from like 8,000.”

He stares at her and she adds, “For the wedding.”

“Oh!” he says, and looks at the bouquets with more interest. “What,” and he pauses because maybe this is a stupid question. He’s full of stupid questions and she’s never not listened, though, so, “What kind of dress are you wearing? Do you have a photo?” He took a bunch of photography courses in high school, he’s pretty confident in his ability to pick out shapes and shadows that look good.

She narrows her eyes at him and says, “You breathe one word to Tony and I’m telling Clint about 4 in 40.”

He startles and says, “I wouldn’t- I wouldn’t, Ms. Potts. I, it’s your wedding dress!”

“Okay, then,” she breathes, and says, “FRIDAY, lock down the suite and bring up the photo.”

The whole system flickers and FRIDAY says, in a voice that is high pitched and very feminine, “Yes! I love look-at-the-dress time!”

The dress is classic and classy, pure Pepper Potts, and she’s going to look great in it. He looks at it, and then at the bouquets, and then back at the dress, and then he says, “So, hear me out, but see this line, here? It’s repeated in this bouquet and this one, but this one, with the, whatever-that-is, whatever that flower is, it, see where the dress makes this shadow, here? That bouquet has the same shadow. So if you want something that’s going to match, I mean, you’re getting really nitpicky here with the bouquets, they all look the same, but that’s the one I would pick.”

The silence in the suite is absolute.

“Peter Parker,” says Ms. Potts slowly, turning to face him just as slowly. “Are you telling me, you can walk me through an artist’s understanding of shadow and form in thirty seconds, in a way I understand it, _and_ apply it to my wedding bouquet, and you can’t figure out how to _dress for dinner_ without help?!”

Peter shrugs. “I don’t really like fashion stuff,” he admits. 

“I don’t have any words for that,” she replies. “I have no idea how you can- you disappoint me deeply. Okay, FRIDAY, put it away.”  
  
“Awwww, boss,” whines FRIDAY, but she obliges. The dress blips out of existence and the suite’s lights flicker again as she returns power to the internal monitoring.

Pepper gathers the photos of the flowers and tosses everything but the one he selected. As she straightens she says, “Wait, what are you doing here, isn’t it lab-time?”

“They’re fighting about the Loki weapon again and I just… I just needed a break,” sighs Peter, running his fingers through his hair.

She smirks at him and says, “Well, thank you. You’ve been deputized, you’re my honorary maid of honor.”

“Is that what I am?” he asks, and he doesn’t mean for it to come out so plaintive and uncertain.

The question hangs in the air for a moment as she considers him seriously. He doesn’t want to add to her night, he really doesn’t, she runs the largest tech company in the world. But… She breaks the silence by smiling at him and saying, “Oh, so it’s time for that awkward conversation, is it?”

He smiles back at her and offers, “Make you hot cocoa?”

“Mmm, put in the peppermint liqueur, too, I’m calling it a night. Give me five to put on some comfy clothes.” She disappears into the bedroom while he wanders over to the bar. FRIDAY helps him find everything he needs. He makes two of them and wanders back over to the couches. Pepper re-appears in a comfortable pair of cotton pants and matching tee in a beautiful shade of teal, and settles beside him on the couch, her back to the couch arm and her feet tucked under his thigh. He hands her over her cocoa and she smiles and says, “Okay, I’m ready.”

“For what?” he asks.

“Let’s talk about us,” she declares and he groans.

She smiles and says, “I told you you’d have to get used to the awkward conversations, Peter.”

“Yeah, but I never have to have them with Tony,” he teases her. “With him it’s all, ‘gimme what I want’ and ‘yes, sir,’ stuff.” She snorts and kicks his thigh with a foot.

“You brought it up,” she points out. 

“Yeah, I didn’t mean to,” he retorts, taking a sip of his cocoa. It really does taste better with the slight snap of the peppermint.

“Well, I’ve been very good and very patient, waiting for you to want to,” she says. “And now I’m pouncing. I have you all to myself for the next few hours, and I want to talk shop.”

Peter sighs and turns slightly, and she motions for him to put his feet up on the couch beside her. She flicks the blanket down off the couch back to cover them, and they sip hot cocoa for a second in silence.   
  
“Okay, fine,” he says, at last, like they’ve been having a silent fight this whole time and he’s conceding, “I do want to know what we’re doing.”

She smiles smugly. “Peter, the most fun part about being Pepper Potts is that half the time I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“But what are we?” asks Peter quietly. “It’s more than just, I mean, for God’s sake, you’ve seen, you’ve been.” He falls silent. The woman has watched him do things with Mr. Stark that he's fairly certain are still illegal around the world. She bought him _lube_.

“The problem with us is that there’s literally no other people in the world in our position, Peter,” she says kindly, and slowly, like she’s feeling her way to the truth. “So there aren’t easy words for it. Let’s try to figure it out, okay?” Peter nods, looking at her over the rim of his cup. She seems relaxed and easy, like this can only be a good thing. He lets her attitude infect him until he starts to see where this could be fun, too.

“Okay,” he starts. “Well, obviously I love Mr. Stark, you know that.”

She nods and says, “As do I. Have you told him yet?”

“Oh God, can you imagine? He’ll, it’ll be, _no_. My plan is to just wait him out. Eventually he’ll have to say it and then I can say it back.” She smiles and wiggles her toes against him.

“Congratulations, Peter.”

He smiles back at her and says, “Congratulations to you, too, Mrs. Stark.”

“Well, not yet,” she reminds him. “I have to not kill him all the way through the wedding first.”

He takes another sip and then says, “So, that’s, I mean, I don’t _not_ love you.”

“I definitely love you,” she says confidently. He nods and says, “Yeah, like that, I feel like that.”

“But I don’t want to have sex with you three times a week and twice on Friday nights,” she teases. He nods.

“I wouldn’t object to sex with you, though,” he tells her, because they’re being honest, and that means being brave, “you’re stupid sexy.”

She smiles back at him and says, “So are you, I like you, I like what I’ve seen you and Tony do together.”

“Yeah, I figured, because you don’t, you know, _leave_ ,” he mumbles. She smiles and he can feel the blush creep up to his ears.

“Tony and I are like a supernova,” she tells him. “I feel kind of, well, blinded, to anyone else, because he’s so-”

“Yeah. Tony,” agrees Peter. “I feel, it’s like that for me, too. He’s so- what I feel when I’m with him, it’s so- big. Everything for him, the stuff in me, it’s so much. And then there’s you and it’s fun and I like it, but it’s not that.” He winces, but when he looks at her, she’s nodding, not hurt.

“I’m so happy you’re getting married,” Peter blurts. “He’s so, it’s so, he loves you so much, and I think it kind of floors him that you’re going to let him keep you. You’re way out of his league.”

She laughs and kicks him with her toe again. “I’m glad we are, too. He was so scared, I think. You know his mom and dad, how they- I know there’s damage there.”

Peter nods. There’s a lot of damage everywhere, with Mr. Stark. His broken edges fit pretty well with Peter’s, though. They _spark_.

“So, here’s a thought, Peter,” she says slowly. “Tell me if the word works for you.”

He nods, trying to project _open_ and _receptive_. 

“How about sweethearts? Can we be that? Can you be my sweetheart and then Tony’s, well, everything you are to Tony?” she asks, her tone a little hopeful.

“We can pick whatever words we want,” he says slowly, because it doesn’t quite fit. They wouldn’t be anything without their individual relationships to Tony. But when he thinks about the difference, yeah, what’s between them is innocent and sweet, not passionate and powerful. “Because there’s no, I mean, there’s no good words for what we are.”

She nods. He thinks about it and he says, “Yeah. You’re-” he takes a deep breath because this is going to sound so weird, and then lets his mouth run quickly through what he wants to say, “So when Bucky and Steve are talking, about their days in the army, when he’s talking about Peggy, he says, “my best girl.” And I can understand it, I’ve read so many books about the Howling Commandos, it used to mean, like, they have feelings but they’re not married, they’re just, they’re just crushing, just sweet for each other. But, I mean, I feel that same way, that you’re the best gal, and maybe, like, my best gal, too. No sex, not dating, because it’s not, it’s not like that.” He can feel the blush creep up because this is ridiculous. Words aren’t meant to bend like this.

“That’s so sweet,” she tells him seriously, her voice full of warm emotion. “Yeah, I can do that. We should call it sweethearts.”

Peter thinks about it some more. She’s so decisive, so certain, but he’s… not. Words aren’t meant to bend this way. Or maybe they can. He decides to table it. The word isn’t important, as much as the feeling they’re agreeing to. “I mean, you’re always touching me and teasing me, but you also _take care of me_.”

Pepper nods. “I like you a lot. I want you happy. I want you safe and healthy. And it’s nice, Tony has all those issues about touching, and I can just touch you whenever.”

Peter startles, because he never thought about that. He usually waits for Mr. Stark to initiate, that’s, that’s part of who they are, how they work. He never thought about what it would be like to not be like, well, _him_ , and to be with Mr. Stark. “Yeah, you can touch me whenever,” he assures her, and she relaxes just a trifle more. 

“So you’ll love me forever, too, then? Even though we’re only, it’s just because we both are so damn stupid for Tony?” she asks him, and he sucks in a breath.

“Yeah,” he sighs. “Yeah, I think I probably will, if that’s okay with you, Pepper Potts.”

“Perfect Peter Parker,” she teases. “Yes.”

“D-do you want to, um, you can, when Mr. Stark gets all show offy, around you, you can, too, you know,” he tells her. He knows he’s blushing but he also knows she’s ok if he’s a little flustered, too. “You can, too.”

“What, kiss you and grab your hair and make you moan?” she says playfully.

Peter nods.  
  
“Thank you, Peter, but I already knew that. I will take you up on your offer at some point. I’ve got dibs on that sex-with-a-woman cherry,” she says, and then licks some of the whipped cream off the rim of the mug. He swallows and nods. _Okay_. “But right now that will make Tony’s head explode and he’s having so much fun playing with you and I can wait, I really can. We don’t have to rush anything.”

He tilts his head and says, “Yeah. I like that. Sometimes it feels like me and Mr. Stark are racing each other to some kind of finish line, and I love it,” she nods, and he considers what he’s seen of the two of them, the scorch and burn of it, before continuing, “so it’ll be nice to just _not_ _do that_ with someone, too.”

She sighs and says, “Yes. You’re so _comfortable_. Do you know how valuable that is? That I don’t have to switch into a different mode around you, whatever mode I’m in, you’re fine with it, you go with it.”

Peter can feel the blush creep up as he says, “I’m- I don’t do it on purpose, but I’m glad that I do- that- for you.”

“You do. It’s pretty rare.” And Ms. Potts knows how to value rare things, Peter remembers.

“I like when you play with my hair,” says Pepper abruptly. “Or you sit down next to me and share whatever you’re eating. I love dressing you.”

“Mr. Stark loves dressing me, too,” he groans.

“No, Mr. Stark likes wrapping you in his things, it’s not the same. I like to see you look, well, look like someone cares what you look like. Look like you belong to someone who notices whether the line of that suit is exactly perfect or not. It’s a small thing, and I like to do it.”

Peter swallows and says, “I love that you tease me. I- I miss my friends so much, and you’re, you’re like one of them, you give me shit, and it’s different, because you know _so much_ more about me, but it’s the same, too.”

“I’m sorry you miss your friends,” she says, kindly, her eyes a little sad. “I know this-” she waves around the room, “-can really fuck up any plans for anything normal, and then you add in the superhero thing, well. I understand it.”

She probably does, too, reflects Peter. Mr. Stark helps him navigate it with all the ease of someone born to it, someone who doesn’t know any other way, but Pepper Potts wasn’t born to this ridiculous amount of wealth and status, so she probably gets it more than Mr. Stark. Little Pepper Potts once had a best friend, he thinks, and then he thinks it’s so sad that he doesn’t know if she has a squad of friends to be in her wedding. He kind of thinks, with how busy she is, the answer will be _no_. She so rarely switches all the way off, he can't picture her gossiping with just anyone. Who would she even trust with all the secrets she must keep in her head? No, the more he thinks about it, the more he knows it, the wedding will be full of _Tony’s_ team. “I’ll be your best maid,” he tells her with confidence. “Or your best man, whatever.”

“You’re a good man, Peter Parker,” she tells him. “You’re so easy to love.”

“You are, too, Pepper Potts,” he says, and then he leans forward. She leans, too, and he rubs their noses together and she giggles. 

“Oh my God,” she exclaims, like he’s giving her a gift. “I love it.”

“Yeah, I picked up the idea somewhere,” he says. It’s not something he’d do with Mr. Stark, though.

“I love it. Always kiss me like that,” she commands. “When you feel like you love me, and you want to, you should do that. And I’ll do the same.” 

He smiles at her and nods, and sits back. She mirrors him and takes a sip of her cocoa.

“I didn’t know we were missing anything,” she muses. “I thought we were so perfect, you know? I didn’t know we were missing anything, and then you came out of left field. Since Ian, you know, Tony hasn’t, well, he didn’t even go over to Kevin’s for years, I think it was too hard. He’s had a couple of, well, side projects, guys he helped out, but it’s like with Kevin, he just helped them out until it was their time to find someone. It always seemed like enough for him, after Ian. You were such a surprise”  
  
“Ian?” asks Peter, because it’s not the first time he’s heard that name. _Ian_ goes with _red scarf_ , and Mr. Stark’s regretful frown.

She considers him and says, “Yeah. Has Tony talked about-?”

He shakes his head. She blows out her breath. “Well, it’s not really, but, well, I mean, you know he was dating someone _like you_ before.” Peter nods. Along with a thousand other flings, yeah. But only one name and only one grimace of pain. “Yeah, but he wasn’t, Ian wasn’t anything like you, he was just a subby young man, very pretty, Tony likes them very pretty. And I think Ian liked all the secrecy of it, at first. Being Tony Stark’s hushed up boy toy.” 

Peter shakes his head. He’d like to tell the world. He completely understands why they need to, but in many ways, he’d prefer the choker to the necklace, if it meant he _could_. 

“Yeah,” agrees Pepper, “That’s- that’s part of why I love you together. You’re so good for him. But, well, so, Ian liked it at first, but then, Tony is a busy man. He’s so busy. You, you get to do missions with him and the lab with him and you just follow him everywhere, you probably don’t even notice how busy he is, but if you take out all that... Just try to imagine his time for you if you didn’t, if you couldn’t keep up with him.”

Peter thinks about it and frowns. He’d take it, he thinks. But it would be hard, so much harder. He has no idea how Pepper does it. But then he thinks, wait, she’s running his huge company and she and Tony are also in each other’s electronic back pockets all day, every day, just in a different way.

She nods at him, face solemn. “Yeah. So Ian didn’t- they started fighting, and Tony wasn’t, he wasn’t the Tony he is now, after Iron Man and Steve and Sokovia. He was a different guy, Peter. And I couldn’t, we weren’t, I couldn’t make him talk the way I can now, he didn’t have anybody to do that for him. Hell, Obadiah wanted Ian _gone,_ and I can’t help but think the secrets that man took to the grave, at least one of them is related to Ian leaving.”

Peter frowns and says, “But Tony thinks it’s his fault.”

“Yeah,” breathes Pepper. “And it is, but it’s not his fault, it’s, it’s all of this-” she waves around the compound, “-and what he has to do to maintain it. It’s working all day and night in the shop because he’s so close to discovery, it’s canceling plans because the China plant needs him, it’s end of the fiscal year, trapped for weeks reviewing paperwork with me.”

Peter nods at this, because he gets it, but then he says, “Yeah, but Mai Pa, and Angelica’s, Spoil Me days, he keeps talking about taking us to an _island_ , Pepper, and I know you’ve been there.”

She nods. “And Dyondo’s tarty little shirts and Happy and the limo, flying to Denmark for a day to drink with your friends, and the necklace you’re wearing, the watch, everything. It’s all part of this. But I think Ian got used to the, the fun stuff, and then the hard stuff seemed like so much work in comparison.” She pauses, frowning, and then adds, “Tony was a millionaire playboy, but that’s never been all he was, even before Iron Man. Ian wanted, well, he only matched Tony in some areas, and he resented the parts he couldn’t have.”

Peter shakes his head. “I don’t like Ian.”

“Well, he wouldn’t like you, either,” she says sympathetically. 

“Did you like him?” Peter asks.

“Some of the time. Especially at first. Tony was so relaxed, at first. It, you can’t see it, but having you, the outlet you give him, that’s such a stupid phrase, but it’s vital to him. I like to watch him with you because I can see, you make him set aside his whole day, everything narrows down to just connecting with you. It’s so- Tony is so complex, and you make him slow down, you let him be simple. And Ian did that for him, too, at first.” Peter has heard the phrase, _damned with faint praise_ , and this is that. That’s what Pepper’s doing to this guy. There’s _worlds_ in what she doesn’t say.

“Did he like you?” asks Peter, feeling brave.

“Oh, God, no,” laughs Pepper, taking a huge sip of her cocoa. Peter remembers his own and sips, too. “No, I was Ms. Potts, taking his Tony away to do _work_. He hated me.”

“I hate him,” declares Peter, decision made. “He sounds so selfish.”

“He was. The green necklace at Angelica’s, remember that? That was Ian. But I think we all are, at least some of the time,” she says sadly. “You just have to find the people that fit with your selfishness.”

“You fit with me,” Peter says staunchly. “With this. I love all of this. I love bringing you both coffee when you have to do paperwork, and food, you both always forget _food_. I love when he takes you out and you both glitter and you’re movie stars. I love when you come back and you throw your shoes and tell me all the gossip about people I’ve only heard of. I love the way he looks at you, like you’re the most amazing thing in the world. You make him switch off, too, I watch it. _And_ you make him switch _on_ , he wants to be so _good_ for you.”

Pepper is blushing now, under the onslaught of his words, and she takes a sip to mask her discomfort and says, quietly, and with a smile, “I didn’t know we were waiting for you. Everything is so much better with you. You just, you just make everything so easy.”

Peter laughs, takes a sip, and says, “Well, I mean, Pepper Potts, you literally negotiated for both of us, so I think it’s safe to say if anyone’s making things easy, it’s definitely you.”

“Well, it’s not Tony,” she snorts, and Peter bursts out laughing, and she kicks his thigh, wiggling her toes. They both share a fond look and Peter says, “Thanks for being my best gal, Pepper Potts.”

“My pleasure, Peter Parker,” she quips back, and leans in for him to rub their noses together.

They’re having an awkward conversation, so maybe now is a good time to ask, thinks Peter. He gathers a deep breath for bravery. “What did you mean, when, when you said I was being uppity?” He can’t look at her, so he drops his gaze to her fingers on the cup.

Her voice is puzzled as she repeats him, “Uppity?” After a second wherein he squirms, hoping she remembers before he has to _describe_ the moment for her, she says, “Oh!” and then, “oh, was that, was that not right? You were teasing Tony, all night, you wore the black lace,” her hand waves at him, vague but it doesn’t really need to get specific and _point_ , Peter concedes. “I thought, Kevin used to say it, with Tony’s side projects, when they’d tease him to let him know they wanted to play. Was it, not right?”

He glances up at her. She looks back, confused and concerned. “Oh,” he says, relaxing a little. “I thought maybe you were saying, you know, I was pushing too hard-“ _getting too comfortable here- “_ you know, getting in the- “ _your “_ -way,” he concludes lamely, heart hammering in his chest.

“Getting in the way?” she questions, her voice sharpening slightly. “Peter, _I’m_ in the way, when you two start up. I love Tony and would do literally anything for him, but we’ve tried, and I can’t _do_ that, can’t _give_ him that, what he wants. Not the way you do, you make it so damn easy, Peter. I love it, I love watching you two, it’s so hot, but if- when- we get around to popping that cherry for you, it’s not going to be me on my knees, sweetheart.”

Peter’s mouth has dried up, so he takes another sip, the peppermint exploding like a strong winter breeze across his tongue, making him shiver. Well, something makes him shiver, anyway.

“In the way,” she snorts fondly, “please. I want you there, on your knees, every time Tony wants to play. You’re so good for him, you don’t see it, but I do. And if you don’t want me to tease-“ he shakes his head, emphatically denying this- “or you don’t want me to use that word, I won’t, I’ll stop. I want you on your knees, and teasing him with black lace panties. I bought them _for you_.”

“Oh,” Peter breathes, because he’s _so stupid_ sometimes. “No, that’s, if that’s what you meant, that’s ok. I just, I didn’t know,” he concludes lamely. Again. He’s so lame, it’s hard to believe that these two people, Ms. Potts and Tony fucking Stark of Stark Industries, actually want him around. He’s just, just a weird kid from Queens. _Made for me_ , he suddenly remembers Mr. Stark whispering against his skin, voice husky and dark, and his mouth goes dry again.

He takes a deep sip of his cocoa and feels it slide down his throat to warm his stomach from the inside out, as Pepper digs her toes into his side. She slants him a sympathetic smile that makes him lean forward for another nose-rub, which makes her giggle this time, and rest their foreheads together. "I think that's probably enough honesty, I feel very awkward that I messed up, clearly it's been bugging you since then," she tells him.

"Me too," he confesses. "I want to get this, this _everything_ , right."

"Yeah," she sighs, "Me too."

“When was the last time you ate?” he asks, suddenly reminded of her saying she liked that, liked that he feeds her. That is a love language Uncle Ben taught him that he's never giving up. _Feed the hungry people to show them you love them_ is written somewhere on the inside of his skull in hot flashing letters.

“Oh, God, don’t, don’t ask me that,” she laughs, sitting back. “You will not like the answer.”

“FRIDAY?” asks Peter.

“Yes, Mr. Parker?” responds the AI.

“Can we get calzones?”

“Coming right up,” she assures him.

“Oh, Peter,” laughs Pepper. “It’s still just pizza. You always pick pizza.”

“No, it’s not,” he assures her. “It’s very different.”

She laughs at him and when it dies down, she smiling still, and he’s smiling back at her, and then she says, “Want to watch Parks and Rec with me?”

He nods, and she says, “Okay, roll film, FRIDAY.” A screen pops up, and they shift so that they’re sitting side by side, with Pepper tucked just under his arm. It’s comfortable, and good. Peter loves it. 

Pepper says, “And now I can have someone for me who knows how to _talk_.”

Peter smiles at that and corrects, “Well, you’re teaching me how to talk, anyway. I’m very good at learning fast.”

She nuzzles his shoulder and laughs, “Infinitely flexible, Peter Parker, it’s your best trait.”

“You know, I think Mr. Stark said the same thing just the other day,” he muses, just to make her laugh again. He loves making her laugh.

“Behave,” she tells him, chuckling, and then they both tune into the show. It’s the one where Leslie and Ben get married and Peter knows FRIDAY chose it because the AI is going a little crazy about the upcoming wedding. It’s just as funny as any other episode, so he settles back to enjoy however much they can get through until the calzones appear.

He wouldn’t have any of this, he thinks quietly, without Mr. Stark. Whatever he and Pepper are, it’s not the in-love kind of love that means they’d have something together without Mr. Stark, but it’s still, it’s still good. And it’s just one more gift Mr. Stark has given him, one more crazy, Peter-couldn’t-have-predicted-it gift, like the suit, like subspace, like the necklace he wears tucked against his chest. One more crazy amazing and weird thing about orbiting Mr. Stark.

~~~ 

Mr. Stark finds them curled up facing each other in the bed, later that night when he stumbles in from the lab. They both wake up and he tries to shush them as he shucks his clothes to the floor.   
  
“‘S cold,” Pepper explains, her eyes still closed, “he’s warm.”

“Wanted t’snuggle,” corrects Peter, scooting closer to her so that there’s room for Mr. Stark to slide in next to him.

“Well, don’t stop for me,” whispers Mr. Stark, wrapping an arm around Peter and tucking his cool hand into Peter’s sleep pants, cupping his dick, as he usually does, proprietary and comforting at the same time. And _cold_ , but Peter’s not complaining tonight. “You’re cute as buttons, both of you, don’t stop for me. Go back to sleep.”

Pepper leans forward and rubs her nose to Peter’s and he smiles and rubs hers back, and then she wraps up his hands with hers and sighs back to sleep.

Mr. Stark wiggles closer to Peter and shifts his grip on Peter’s cock, and then sighs and says, “Perfect. Everything perfect.”  
  
“Mm,” says Peter. “Yessir.”

He’s back asleep before Mr. Stark’s hand warms up.

**Author's Note:**

> So from here on out, it's just going to be throwing them into fun situations to make more porn for us all, although this story was pretty porn free, woops. Sorry about that. Feel free to leave inspiration/requests in the comments, I can't guarantee I'll write them but you might spark something!
> 
> Also, please, this, like, this is really far into this, y'all. If you made it all the way here just to criticize me, but you haven't bothered to chat with me in the comments? Just go away, you gigantic dork. PRAISE ME FIRST, then correct my spelling. (THEN PRAISE ME AGAIN. I need that compliment sandwich. Unless you want to beta. Then, I guess we'll figure that out. EDIT: TURNS OUT, I LOVE WHEN MY BETAS ARE BLUNT. THANKS, GUYS.)


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